The Conservative Governments' Record on Social Policy from May 2015 to pre-COVID 2020: Policies, Spending and Outcomes is examined in a new report from the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE. The report finds that the protective capacity of the welfare state over this period was eroded.
Poverty as measured by material deprivation through lack of economic resources remains absolutely central to understanding the causation of most aspects of social exclusion and a range of social outcomes, concludes the 2nd of the two-volume PSE-UK study.
Government policies have meant misery for millions in fuel poverty, and Conservatives manifesto commitments promise no relief, argues Ruth London. A different direction is needed, prioritising renewables, insulation, and public control of energy and prices.
The human cost of government imposed austerity should be a key issue, argue Vickie Cooper and David Whyte. Drawing on their new book, 'The Violence of Austerity', they set out how austerity is shaping people's lives and deaths.
Cuts in public spending have been targeted at people who are already disadvantaged, according to a new report from the Centre for Welfare Reform think tank.
Drawing on official statistics, the report examines the effects of coalition measures such as increases in VAT, cuts in benefits and tax credits, and cuts in local authority funding.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has revealed plans to cut an extra £25 billion from public spending by the end of 2017-18 if the Conservatives win the next election, with benefits spending as the main target for reductions.
An overall cap on government spending on benefits will start in 2015, the Chancellor George Osborne has announced in his Autumn Statement. The idea of a 'welfare spending' cap was first put forward by the Chancellor earlier in the year in his 2013 Budget.
Deprived areas across England and Scotland are seeing larger cuts to local authority budgets – of around £100 per head – than in more affluent ones, according to a new report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The JRF research analyses the scale and pattern of cuts in spending on local government in England and Scotland since 2010. It also includes detailed analysis of the approaches taken by three local councils (Newcastle, Coventry and Milton Keynes).
Cuts to social security benefits introduced by the coalition government since 2010 amount to a breach of the UK's obligations under international agreements on human rights, according to an article by two legal experts and campaigners.
More than one in three households in social housing in the north of England have no money at all left at the end of each week after they have met their financial commitments, according to new research.
The report is the first to emerge from a three-year research project tracking the impact of benefits reform on a self-selecting sample of households in social housing in the north of England. It provides a 'baseline' against which the effects of cuts will be monitored in the coming months.